Weight-loss through walking

Hey guys,

It sucks to admit this, but I'm pretty huge(fat)... It impacts me in more way then one, and I feel like I should make a change now in high school while I still can. I love golf and see it as the perfect opportunity to help me shed the pounds, I think combining a game I love with a goal I feel really passionate about will be that magic formula for weight loss everyone looks for. I'm just looking for tips and maybe some support, thinking about starting a journal in this part of the forum to help document my goal. I'm about 5' 10", any idea what a good weight to shot for would be? I'm still only a freshman in high school so I'm most likely going to grow but, it would be nice to have a solid target now that I can reassess later if I get taller. Finally even though I'm only 14, reading articles on this forum have made me seriously consider getting a nice push cart, I think it would do infinitely more for my game than a new club or something in that category, any recommendations on a nice push cart that I'll get my money's worth out of? I'm willing to drop some dough, I'm very serious about losing weight, too many failed attempts are inspiring me to really push through and lose it this time. Thanks for reading, it hurts to say it but I need help, any would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

-Jake

Walking either by carrying or pushing is a start. You'll spend a bit more calories by carrying compared to pushing, but I think some research showed it was not a big difference. The important part is to walk. They found you burn around 1000-1500 calories by walking 18 holes. This alone may however not help you lose weight since you'll probably feel hungrier after walking and eating more. The equation, while difficult to calculate accurately is pretty simple. To stay the same weight the ratio between calories consumed and burned must be equal. To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you eat. What you eat is of course a big point in all of this. Less pizzas, hamburgers and processed food, more pure meat, vegetables etc. Anything they put into a frying pan (I hate fried stuff) quickly becomes a lot worse. The body is a fine tuned instrument, most people remain the same weight for decades, without thinking about the calories in/out relationship. That's because the body give us signals when it feels full and signals when it needs food. If you eat a lot over two days, you will eat less the following day, the body is telling you it still got food to burn. What you eat is very important. You can feel equally full by eating vegetables and pure meat compared to a hamburger and fries, but the latter got a lot more fat and calories. The main reason for the obesity we see in wealthy nations primarily come from what we eat. How much you move during a day also makes a difference, but it's primarily the food. You need calories, fat, proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins, but in fast-food, the amount of calories and fat greatly outweighs the other, which means the body does not get enough of everything. Fruit and berries should be a part of every diet, especially those wanting to lose weight. They are high on carbs, but low on calories and fat. They will help making you feel full without eating too many calories and fat. If you are serious and want to get at this, I recommend you start doing some cardio, which is a great way to burn fat. Genes, environment and lots of other factors are part of why we look how we do, but anyone can drop or gain weight by eating more or less and exercising more or less. Walking on the course helps, but you'll probably need more than that, if you don't want to drastically change the diet. There has been performed studies which show that someone with lots of fat can live on water and vitamins only for a year while the body feeds off the fat. It is why larger people survived way back in the old times when food was scarce during the winter. They could live off their fat for a longer period of time than the skinny people. There are lots of diet information on the net, but most are making it too complicated. At your age you are still growing, which means you will get taller and gain weight that way, but you can still do something to burn off the fat. Don't make it more complicated than it is, eat more good stuff, less bad stuff, exercise more.

Jake-

Kudos to you for recognizing the problem at an early age. Mentally committing can be the most important step towards achieving your goals.

Quick tip... Although walking/other constant cardio activities are important, they are just the tip of the iceberg. In order to see true results, you need to incorporate many other forms of physical activity, with resistance training arguably being the most important.

Crazy dieting WILL DESTROY YOUR METABOLISM and you will battle with your weight for a long time. You need to build your body into a fat burning machine (a little cliche, but true).  It may take time, but losing weight the right way will serve you for a long time and the results will be infinitely more rewarding.

Would you like more personal help with not only weight loss but also your golf game? I am a personal trainer/strength and conditioning specialist. I specialize in 2 things:

- Helping golfers improve their game

- Helping people transform their bodies

A lot of times (much like you), my clients fit both criteria!

Contact me if you would like to speak more. I would love to guide you through this process, as I can already tell how dedicated you are.

Good Luck and don't be afraid to ask questions!

-Grant

Grant, I pm'd you so we can continue our conversation there, and as for anyone else who walks with a push cart, any recommendations? It doesn't have to be top of line, just solid enough so that I won't have to replace it next year. Also, what stores can you buy/find them in? Should I be looking at online stores, golf stores, sporting goods stores, or all of the above?

School should be ending soon.....great time to kick up the work out...mornings before 10 am are the best....good luck in your quest...   PS..get the darn pull cart... any pull cart Bag boy/ sun mountain/clicgear/ used/new/craigslist I dont care...DO SOMETHING

I carry my bag and so can't offer any help with a cart recommendation. What I can offer is that I've noticed the people I play with are a big factor in how much I feel like a round was a workout with a challenging sport vs. a long, slow walk punctuated with failure. I won't guess about cause and effect, just want to say that trying to get out there and move through a round like you mean it by finding people to play with who enjoy that style might help you get more out of your cart. Good luck, I'll be rootin' for ya.

PS Starting a journal somewhere sounds like a great idea; losing weight by intent usually can have some lousy feeling days and a little external accountability and cheering might help get through them in good humor—good thinking!

There a few reviews of push carts on the main site . Bag Boy, Clicgear, and Sun Mountain are the three main industry giants.

Thanks, I read these and I'm leading towards a Sun Mountain after doing some research, partly because it'll keep me happy for a long time, partly because I found out a local golf store has SV1s in stock.

I wish you the best of luck. I think it's great that you're passionate about this, but I hope it's for the right reasons. I remember being a big guy in high school. I have no idea how big you are, but I am 6'4", and weighed about 265 (waaaaay back when), and it was kinda embarassing having boobs bigger than my girlfriends'. If you are wanting to lose weight for YOURSELF, that's the only way you're going to stay committed. Don't just try to lose weight because someone tells you to. Health is a great reason for you to do it, not popularity.

Now that that's off my chest, I bought a caddytek push cart from TGW.com for $109, and has many of the same features as the Speed Cart, and had foam/plastic wheels so you don't have to worry about airing up the tires/getting a flat. I wish you the best in your endeavor.

And FYI, I have lost over 15 pounds since the beginning of May just from walking while playing golf. Once you start losing the weight and realizing how much better you feel all the time, it will influence the rest of your life as well. You'll start to think about whether or not to get seconds at the dinner table, or if I'm ordering a pizza, should I get a thin crust instead (MUUUUUCH fewer calories, BTW). Stick with it long enough and your whole outlook will start to change.

good for you

walking is good but you also need to do strenth training and stretching

walking/ running good cardio

stretching/strenth training boost the matabalism for longer time period

stay away from empty calories

snack on fruits/vegatables

and drink water at least 7 glasses/day

Anyone know a good amount of calories to be taking in? I'm 5'10'' if that helps.

Eat less, or preferably eat less food with lots of fat and calories. More vegetables, which give you very little kalories. Counting calories can be difficult since people have different needs and spend different amounts of calories through a day. If your weight has gone up or remaind steady for some time, eating less food or less calories will be a good start. There are 9 grams calories in 1 gram fat, 4 grams in 1 gram carb and protein. Make sure you get fat, carbs and protein in your diet, but probably even out the scale a bit. If you are eating dinner, fill half the plate with vegetables, 1/4 with meat and 1/4 with accessories.

If you're looking for a ballpark figure: a way to start is with a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator that takes in your height, weight, and age and throws out a guess at how many calories your body will use in a 24 hour period without activity and add to that the calorie guesstimates you find for the activities you're doing each day.

If you're looking to lose weight; I'd spend a few bucks to have a sit down with your GP about getting it right and what a healthy calorie deficit for you would be. Seems like a hassle, what with The Google these days, but I think it's a good investment.

As an example, I had to lose a few some time ago (I use the term "few" in the loosest sense) and I found I had plenty of energy to think and play with a budgeted deficit of 300 - 600 per day, but never below my BMR of roughly 1800, and that using rough estimates for my intake was plenty to keep the scale on the downward swing when averaged weekly. And, golf was always a welcome addition to the equation because it increases the days budget by quite a bit without tiring you out so much "normal" exercise is a problem that  day.

No idea if this is good or bad, probably just means I'm really fat, but I have a BMR of 2479.6. Does that mean I can take in that many calories and still lose weight? That doesn't seem possible, because I know that 2479.6 is a lot of calories.

Depends on how you look at it: they say the tissue in one pound of body fat makes about 3500 calories available to your body, i.e., a deficit of 3500 over some period will result in shedding a pound temporarily (how to make it stay off is a matter of debate these days.) I believe the theory is that all tissue uses calories to sustain itself and, moreover, your body has to work to move its weight around.

That said, if you think you're fairly far off what a male would be with a body fat of 10-15%, e.g., 185lbs at 6'0, then I'd be very surprised if the standard BMR equation would produce a number even remotely close to what your actual BMR is—as it's just a way of expressing a set of past observations in the language of math.

Your GP (family doc) will know one way or the other on things like that and have the results of studies they can give you that'll the basis for why they think X or Y (always ask for the facts.) Whereas the rest of us in the peanut gallery are just guessing or repeating hearsay (and by rest I mean all of those you talk to who can't immediately point to their framed medical doctorate, including The Google.)

what are accessories

meats are to be lean

carbs in small amounts

veggies/fruits go crazy with them

GO SEE A DR. HE CAN HELP YOU THE MOST

Trick number 1, buy smaller plates. People eat lesson on smaller plates, dead serious

Eat fats, carbs, and protein with each meal, don't make it all one. Get balance.

Start moving around, get some exercise, if its just walking for an hour a day,

I always like to get at least 2100 calories, it keeps me going, i don't feel overly hungry. Those binge diets of 1500 are crazy, i know i was on one for a while, lost a crap load of weight fast, but i felt like shit the whole time, i also rebounded to much. 2100-2500 keeps me even and i loose weight on a nice pace.

Stop drinking stuff with sugar in it, if you have to go diet or lite, but be careful. Artificial sweeteners can make you stop loosing weight. I would just stick with Waters, and if you need something, go with something with the least amount of suger. Kick the pop, cafienne is addictive.

Or maybe don't walk at all: User Propelled Golf Cart